ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 11 



f 



proceeded to discuss the other portion of his theme, and to consider 

 whether modern science, either as natural history or physiology, had 

 made any progress respecting the future life, or with regard to the 

 state and nature of the soul. Materialism in this respect had made 

 great progress in latter times ; and he vehemently attacked the views 

 of a modern author, who, amongst other things, asserted, that to assume 

 a spiritual soul dwelling in the brain, and thence directing the mo- 

 tions and actions of the body, was the greatest absurdity, and who 

 had also denied the truth of such a thing as individual immortality. 

 Were the views of this author, who also denied the existence of free 

 will, founded in truth, or even recognized as such, where would be 

 the use of all the exertions of those great, and good, and learned 

 men who for centuries have labored and worked for the improvement 

 and instruction of the human race ? There would be nothing great 

 or noble in man's nature ; there would be no reality in history, no truth 

 in faith. Where would be the result of all our scientific investiga- 

 tions ? He concluded by observing that, however difficult or even 

 impossible it might be to explain the nature of the soul, we must be 

 satisfied that the answer could not be one which was opposed to all 

 morality and all virtue. 



At the German Scientific Association, held at Tubingen, in 1853, 

 in Wurtemberg, Prof. Karnat stated that Germany possesses coal 

 sufficient to supply the whole world with fuel for at least 500 years. 

 At the same Congress it was reported that a number of perfect hu- 

 man skulls with teeth in them had been found in the Suabian Alps in 

 the formation of the mammoth period, which leads to the conclusion 

 that man existed at the time when the mastodon and other of the 

 huger antediluvian animals flourished. 



At the late meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, the 

 Ray Society held its eleventh anniversary, Sir Charles Lyell in the 

 chair. The report stated that a volume of Botanical and Physiologi- 

 cal Memoirs, including Alexander Braun's profound treatise on 

 " Rejuvenescence in Nature," had just been published. The follow- 

 ing works were on the table, and ready for distribution : Part VI. of 

 Alder and Hancock's " Nudibranchiate Mollusca," for 1851 ; the 

 second volume of Darwin's great work on " The Cirripedes," with 

 thirty plates, for 1852; and the fourth volume of the " Geological and 

 Zoological Bibliography," for 1854. It is the intention of the Coun- 

 cil to publish a supplement and index to the last work. 



During the past season an Educational Exhibition has been held in 

 London for the purpose of illustrating the condition of Elementary 

 Education in the United Kingdom and its Colonies, Continental Eu- 

 rope, and the United States of America, by bringing together com- 



